Tacoma Tightens Belt Due to Rising Gas Prices

With gas prices averaging more than $3.30/gallon in Tacoma a number of companies and local governments are seeking ways to cut their gas usage during the summer. Here’s a few we’ve discovered this week.

Pierce Transit
Riders on Pierce Transit will be surprised to discover pedals installed on every seat on all buses serving the 1, 2, and 3 routes. Riders on those routes can choose to either pay the full fare, or ride for half price and help pedal the bus up steep hills.

Billboards announcing the program will feature the entire Flintstone family on a Pierce Transit bus with their feet sticking out the bottom.

Frank Russell
Tacoma-based Russell Investment Group will turn stop air-conditioning its 12-story office building for the summer to cut their power bill.

A spokesperson for Russell said, “We have been acclimating our employees for the intense heat we expect in the building by shuttling them every day to the Museum of Glass Hot Shop for lunch. When the Russell family funded the Hot Shop five years ago who would have guessed it would help us train our employees too?”

To make the heat a little more palatable for its employees, Russell will also relax its rigid dress codes, so expect to see stockbrokers working in their Bermuda shorts and barefeet on the hottest days of the year.

UWT
The University of Washington, Tacoma, will shut down its campus for the summer and teach all classes on Tollefson Plaza. This has the added benefit of filling Tollefson Plaza regularly. In appreciation, the Tacoma Chamber and Downtown Merchants group will offer scholarships to all summer UWT students.

LeMay
Facing escalating cost projections, America’s Car Museum has announced that they are converting the museum to more of a “hybrid” model that will be part car museum and part mixed-use retail center.

The new Museum hybrid—like other hybrids—will be more expensive than the regular model and have a longer wait period before delivery. On the plus side, the value of the hybrid museum to the owner will be much better over time than the gas-guzzling original plan.

Disclaimer: We may occasionally stretch the truth or make things up on Fridays… but only when there’s a disclaimer. Everything else is absolutely true. Trust us.